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Tweezers Of Light

Posted by timothy on from the pinch-me-with-those- dept.

jasonripp writes: "Seems those wacky scientists have discovered a method to use light to easily move tiny particles of matter with a high degree of precision. This has applications in biotech, computers and more. The article is here." It's one of those cool low-tech inspirations, too -- the "light tweezers" these scientists have devised were inspired by cheap laser-pointer accessories. Update: 03/06 10:00 PM by T : We have compensated for the Dark Side moving that URL around.

4 of 7 comments (clear)

  1. Web page by Stevis · · Score: 2
    This is actually my research lab, although I don't work on this stuff (the user known as Amyloid does...)

    You can see more info (on tweezers in general) from our site or our advisor's site

    Stevis

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  2. Annoying Web Site by Eviltar · · Score: 2

    The link to the story is now here, since "today" is no longer "Monday". Looks like it will only be good for a week.

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  3. Not that new... by Ssolstice · · Score: 2

    I'm sure they may be working on a smaller scale, but researchers have been using laser tweezers to insert/remove/adjust objects inside cells for years. It's kind of fun to beat the crap out of paramecium with a PVC pellet. I'm just waiting for some giant alien to give me a taste of my own medicine...

  4. Tractor beams? by Archanagor · · Score: 2

    Because of its fluid nature, the liquid crystal flows ever so gently to send light beams in thousands of directions to make "tweezers" that could gently move one piece of matter at a time or thousands of pieces simultaneously -- and in any direction.

    If I didn't know better, I'd say this sounds like a tractor beam.

    Science sounds more like science fiction every day.

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